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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

DIN:What a Kiddush Hashem... as opposed to the Romanian Hooligans protesting this speech in New York City, making a Chillul Hashem .... also couldn't help see many democrats continue sitting when Netanyahu mentioned Ellie Weisel who was siting in the balcony... Pelosi marched out of the chambers, after the speech avoiding reporters ....Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu addressed the US Congress this morning, saying that the current deal being formulated by the P5+1 group of world powers and Tehran would inevitably lead to a nuclear Iran and war.The US has said over the past year that no deal with Iran is better than a bad deal, Netanyahu told the assembled American lawmakers."Well this is a bad deal. A very bad deal."

Netanyahu said that the alternative to this deal was not war, as some have posited, "but a better deal."

"The days of the Jewish people remaining passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over! " Netanyahu said to rousing applause.

The Israeli leader said that the Western powers' emerging deal with Iran would all but guarantee that Tehran gets nuclear weapons.

Any deal would include concessions that would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure, he said. "Not a single nuclear facility would be demolished," according to the terms of deal, Netanyahu added.

Their breakout time would be a year by US assessments and even shorter by Israeli assessments, he said.

He said that nuclear inspectors in North Korea had not been able to stop Pyongyang from getting nuclear weapons and they would not be able to stop Tehran either.

Netanyahu said that sanctions against Iran should not be lifted until Tehran stops aggression against its neighbors in the Middle East, stops supporting terrorism around the world and stops threatening to annihilate Israel, "the one and only Jewish state."

He recalled the story of Purim in which Persians tried to wipe out the Jews, saying that the people were saved by Esther speaking out.

Today, Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is trying to wipe out the Jews, he said. "He spews the worst kind of anti-Semitic hatred. He tweets that Israel must be destroyed."

He rejected Iran's claim that it opposes Israel only, and not Jews, by quoting Iranian ally, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah: "'If all Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the problem of chasing them around the world.'"

"We must all stand together to stop Iran's march of conquest subjugation and terror," Netanyahu said to applause.

He rejected the notion that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was a moderate, saying that the regime is as extremist as ever.

"The ideology of Iran's regime is deeply rooted in Islam and therefore will always be an enemy of the US. The fact that Iran and US have a common enemy in Islamic State doesn't make Iran a friend of America," he said.

"To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle and lose the war," he said. "We can't let that happen.

Netanyahu said he regretted that some saw his visit to Washington as political. "That was never my intention," the prime minister said.

"I know that no matter what side of the aisle you sit, you stand with Israel," Netanyahu said to applause.

He said that the US-Israel alliance must remain above politics. The prime minister said that he had called US President Barack Obama a number of times in Israel's hour of need, and he had obliged. He thanked the US president for all of the support he had provided Israel.

"This Capitol dome helped build our Iron Dome," Netanyahu said.

US President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, US Secretary of State John Kerry and several dozen Democratic members of Congress sat out the speech. Netanyahu was invited to address Congress by Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner and accepted the invitation without coordinating the move with the White House. The White House has called Netanyahu's move a breach of accepted protocol.

Obama said in an interview to Reuters on Monday that he thinks the timing of Netanyahu's address to Congress is a mistake.

"As a matter of policy, we think it's a mistake for the prime minister of any country to come to speak before Congress a few weeks before they're about to have an election. It makes it look like we are taking sides," Obama said.

Obama's National Security Adviser Susan Rice said at the AIPAC conference on Monday that Netanyahu's stance on Iran is not a viable negotiating position.

"We cannot let a totally unachievable ideal stand in the way of a good deal," Rice stated.

"I know that some of you will be urging Congress to insist that Iran forgo its domestic enrichment capacity entirely. But as desirable as that would be," she said to members of the pro-Israel lobby, "it is neither realistic nor achievable. Even our closest international partners in the P5+1 do not support denying Iran the ability ever to pursue peaceful nuclear energy – if that is our goal, our partners will abandon us."

"Simply put, that is not a viable negotiating position," she continued. "Nor is it even attainable. The plain fact is, no one can make Iran unlearn the scientific and nuclear expertise it already possesses."

Monday, March 2, 2015

On the eve of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress the level of hysteria among American Jewish liberals has reached cascading proportions.

From full-page advertisements in The New York Times to anguished columns in The Times of Israel expressions of outrage pour forth. They are furious lest an Israeli prime minister implicate them in such a heinous deed as warning against the imminent surrender of the Obama administration to Iranian nuclear ambitions.

All the usual suspects on the Jewish left chimed in. J Street released a petition with 20,000 signees protesting: “I’m a Jew. Bibi does NOT speak for me.”

That self-identified “pro-Israel pro-peace” group also purchased a full-page advertisement in The New York Times warning that the Prime Minister’s speech would damage American-Israeli relations.

Jewish Voice for Peace urged members of Congress to skip the speech, presumably lest they be contaminated by hearing something outside their comfort zone. Not to be outdone Tikkun declared: “No Mr. Netanyahu, we will not let you drag us into a proxy war for Israel against Iran.”

The following warning from similarly frightened American Jews resonates in memory: “Harm has been done to the morale and . . . to the sense of security of the American Jewish community through unwise and unwarranted statements and appeals which ignore the feelings and aspirations of American Jewry.”

It might even include: “The State of Israel represents and speaks only on behalf of its own citizens and in no way presumes to represent or speak in the name of Jews who are citizens of any other country.”

Ooops. Those were the words of American Jewish Committee president Jacob Blaustein, fifty-five years ago, in a letter to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. The Israeli leader had the temerity to request assistance from the American government for the fledgling state and urge American Jews to make aliya. In the old Yiddish expression: “plus ca change plus c’est la meme chose.”

Now it is Netanyahu’s turn to heighten the anxiety of anxious American Jews.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, criticized his plan to speak to Congress as “a bad idea” because it might make Israel a partisan issue in American politics. “That is something we in the Jewish community cannot afford,” he added.

Prominent Jewish organization leaders chimed in. Anti-Defamation League director Abe Foxman labeled the controversy “a tragedy of unintended consequences.” Seymour Reich, former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations lamented that Netanyahu was splitting Congress and dividing the American Jewish community.

Even former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, not otherwise noted for his pronouncements as a Jew, chimed in. He dutifully informed Israelis: “You should know that the new-found alliance between your Prime Minister and our Republican Party, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and some wealthy right-wing Jews here (such as billionaire Sheldon Adelson), is poisoning the relationship between Israel and the United States.”

The shanda of speaking to Congress “foists your own domestic politics onto ours,” especially “the right-wing radicalism that has taken hold in Israel – a radicalism that rejects a ‘two-state solution’ and continues to build new settlements on the West Bank.”

Frustrated and infuriated American Jewish liberals, like their outraged conservative anti-Zionist predecessors, seem terrified at the prospect of an Israeli prime minister saying something to an American audience about protecting Jews.

Dual loyalty always has been, and remains, the unspoken curse of Diaspora communities. American Jews – especially, these days, of a leftist persuasion – must beat a hasty retreat from Israel lest it sabotage their privileged American status and penchant for moral preening.

But Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel issued a bold challenge to the Netanyahu naysayers when he announced his intention to attend the Prime Minister’s Congressional warning about the horrific dangers of a nuclear Iran.

In an ad placed in The New York Times by Orthodox rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Wiesel requested support “for keeping weapons from those who preach death to Israel and America.”

Peggy Shapiro has dedicated her life to exposing and combating antisemitism. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Shapiro was born in a Displaced Persons (DP) camp located in Landsberg, Germany, the same town in which Adolph Hitler wrote Mein Kampf.

Today, the married grandmother of four serves as Midwest Director for the Israel advocacy group StandWithUs. As a retired college professor, she is keenly aware of the antisemitism epidemic on college campuses and its eerie similarity to conditions at universities in 1930s Europe.

Shapiro is also all too familiar with the Roosevelt administration’s failings during the Holocaust – a blight that the US has sought to rectify, but one that she sees repeating itself in the current occupant of the White House.

“The date was October 6, 1943, and more than four hundred rabbis came to plead for US government to save Jews from Hitler. They hoped to alert the American public about the Nazi massacres,” Shapiro wrote. “Yet the rabbis marched through Washington D.C. to the gates of the White House, where they had expected a small delegation would be granted a meeting with President Roosevelt. The president was unavailable even though his schedule that day was open. His calendar listed nothing between a 1:00 lunch with the Secretary of State and a 4:00 ceremony.”

While American Jewry has this notion that Roosevelt was a friend to the Jewish people, the truth is that he had been silent about the extermination of Jews in Europe. FDR wouldn’t even implement diplomatic or economic sanctions against the German regime. Even after evidence was presented to Under Secretary of State Wells in late 1942, the Roosevelt administration remained resolute in its head-in-the-sand policy.

Shapiro asks, “Why did the president sneak out the back door of the White House rather than hear the rabbis’ urgent request?” The answer, she points out, is that “the rabbis’ pleas conflicted with his policy towards European Jewry.”

Between the day Roosevelt refused to meet with the rabbis, until the end of World War II, 182 members of Shapiro’s family were murdered by the Nazis.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in Washington D.C. to address the Congress of the United States, once again we have a US president refusing to meet a Jewish leader who comes to warn of impending doom.

The similarities are undeniable and frightening.

Just like the rabbis who were shunned by FDR because they did not march in step with the policies of his administration, Netanyahu is also the leader of people under the threat of genocide, who has substantial disagreements with the president of the United States.

Just as the rabbis faced public criticism as well as condemnation from Jewish Americans who didn’t want to ruffle feathers over seventy years ago, Netanyahu has been ostracized by the mainstream press and many liberal Jews in the United States who refuse to believe that history can repeat itself and whose loyalties lie with the Party of Roosevelt, not the safety of the Jewish people and ultimately the United States.

The rhetoric stemming from the administration and some Democrats that Netanyahu accepted Speaker Boehner’s (R-Ohio) invitation to address Congress before the White House was notified has turned out to be utter nonsense. Even the reliably anti-Israel New York Times was forced to admit, through a correction, that Netanyahu “accepted after the administration had been informed.”

The public feud between Netanyahu and Obama is a smokescreen – a failed attempt to drum up disgust against the prime minister by an administration who fears Netanyahu telling the American people the truth about the dangers a nuclear Iran poses to Israel, the region and the world.

FDR knew the truth a year before the rabbis came calling. But sounding the alarm bells – bombing railroad tracks – warning the world and putting Hitler on notice, wasn’t part of the foreign policy game plan.

Holocaust survivors, their children and every Jew in the world whose family members perished at the hands of the Nazis can only wonder what might have been if FDR had taken the time to chat with those rabbis.

Today they are witnessing history repeat itself. On the steps of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The “Our Eretz Yisrael” organization released a message of support for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as he prepares to give his address to the United States Congress.

“All of Am Yisrael stands behind you as you embark on your trip to Washington for your shlichus to save Am Yisrael from another Holocaust.

The lesson from the Holocaust is that we may not remain silent as Jewish leaders’ 75 years ago suppressed the wave of protest against Washington and the United States Government permitted Nazi Germany to bring millions of Jews to the gas chambers and death camps.

This was the case with the world media too, including the media in control of the Jews.

“Six Million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and we thank you for traveling to Washington so our cry is heard regarding the future in addition to reminding the world of the terrible failure of the past, allowing the genocide of the Jews as the world turned a blind eye” stated Rav Shalom Dov Wolpe, Chairman of the Our Land of Israel.

Days after Rishon L’Tzion HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef Shlita announced his ruling regarding the observance of Purim for residents of Ramot, Jerusalem Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar Shlita released his psak.

Rav Yosef announced that the new reality regarding Ramot is such that residents should observe Purim on the 15th of Adar, Shushan Purim, together with all Jerusalemites. This represents a change from the long-standing psak of Maran HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef ZT”L.

Rav Amar released a letter stating that from his point of view, nothing has changed and Purim observance in Ramot should be on the 14th, a in line with Maran’s psak.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Kuwaiti paper claims unnamed Israeli minister with good ties with the US administration 'revealed the attack plan to John Kerry.'

The Bethlehem-based news agency Ma’an has cited a Kuwaiti newspaper report Saturday, that US President Barack Obama thwarted an Israeli military attack against Iran's nuclear facilities in 2014 by threatening to shoot down Israeli jets before they could reach their targets in Iran.

According to Al-Jarida, the Netanyahu government took the decision to strike Iran some time in 2014 soon after Israel had discovered the United States and Iran had been involved in secret talks over Iran’s nuclear program and were about to sign an agreement in that regard behind Israel's back.

The report claimed that an unnamed Israeli minister who has good ties with the US administration revealed the attack plan to Secretary of State John Kerry, and that Obama then threatened to shoot down the Israeli jets before they could reach their targets in Iran.

Al-Jarida quoted "well-placed" sources as saying that Netanyahu, along with Minister of Defense Moshe Yaalon, and then-Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, had decided to carry out airstrikes against Iran's nuclear program after consultations with top security commanders.

According to the report, “Netanyahu and his commanders agreed after four nights of deliberations to task the Israeli army's chief of staff, Benny Gantz, to prepare a qualitative operation against Iran's nuclear program. In addition, Netanyahu and his ministers decided to do whatever they could do to thwart a possible agreement between Iran and the White House because such an agreement is, allegedly, a threat to Israel's security.”

The sources added that Gantz and his commanders prepared the requested plan and that Israeli fighter jets trained for several weeks in order to make sure the plans would work successfully. Israeli fighter jets reportedly even carried out experimental flights in Iran's airspace after they managed to break through radars.

Brzezinski's idea

Former US diplomat Zbigniew Brzezinski, who enthusiastically campaigned for Obama in 2008, called on him to shoot down Israeli planes if they attack Iran. “They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch?” said the former national security adviser to former President Jimmy Carter in an interview with the Daily Beast.

“We have to be serious about denying them that right,” he said. “If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a 'Liberty' in reverse.’"

Israel mistakenly attacked the American Liberty ship during the Six-Day War in 1967.

Brzezinski was a top candidate to become an official adviser to President Obama, but he was downgraded after Republican and pro-Israel Democratic charges during the campaign that Brzezinski’s anti-Israel attitude would damage Obama at the polls.

As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu plans to address the US Congress, Satmar Chassidim are planning a major protest to coincide with that address. The Satmar Rebbe of Williamsburg is planning a major protest against the prime minister and his address.

The rebbe calls for a meeting of rabbonim to address the worrisome matter, as he feels the prime minister is acting irresponsibility in his defiance of US President Barack Obama and his address is liable to lead to increased anti-Semitism around the world.

The rebbe is particularly angered over the fact the prime minister states he speaks on behalf of the Jewish People.

The rebbe is planning a major gathering outside the Israeli Consulate in downtown Manhattan at the time the prime minister addresses Congress on Tuesday, 12 Adar.

The rebbe made his remarks during a dinner of the chassidus in Boro Park attended by thousands of avreichim.

Diane Feinstein the democratic senator from California, told CNN on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contention that he is speaking for all Jews in lobbying against an agreement between the US and Iran is “arrogant.”DIN:Diane! who ever said he speaks for you? he speaks for Jews who have a jewish heart not for biological Jews who would sacrifice 7 million of their brothers and sisters in order to circle the wagon and carry the water for their beloved, incompetent president.

Netanyahu, upon boarding a plane to Washington for what his office says will be a historic address to Congress, said Sunday that he is going as an "emissary of all the citizens of Israel, even those who don't agree with me, and the entire Jewish people."

Netanyahu, whose speech has triggered a great deal of friction with the White House said, "I am greatly concerned about the security of the citizens of Israel and I will do what is necessary in order to ensure our future."

“He doesn’t speak for me on this," Feinstein told CNN's State of the Union. "I think it’s a rather arrogant statement. I think the Jewish community is like any other community. There are different points of view. I think that arrogance does not befit, Israel, candidly."

The senator said that she will attend Netanyahu's speech, even though some of her Democratic colleagues plan to stay away in protest to what they feel is the Israeli premier's overt undermining of President Barack Obama and his administration.

"I intend to go, and I’ll listen respectfully," she said. "I don’t intend to jump up and down."

The Black Caucus ungrateful members are planning a very public stunt similar to their protest in support of robber Mike Brown

A bunch of black ungrateful ingrates...... Jews fought and marched side by side fighting for their rights, and now they are kicking us in the ass!

Black Caucus Democrats are planning to walk out during Netanyahu’s speech on the security of Israel. The move was reportedly planned after communications with the Obama White House.

The poison fruit of Obama’s hate and division, is now in full bloom.

Democrat Black “leadership” in America have betrayed the black churches and the legacy of Martin Luther King:

King was also an outspoken advocate on behalf of Israel’s security and against anti-Semitism, especially among the African-American community.

“The response of some of the so-called young militants does not represent the position of the vast majority of Negroes. There are some who are color-consumed and they see a kind of mystique in blackness or in being colored, and anything non-colored is condemned. We do not follow that course … Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect her right to exist, its territorial integrity and the right to use whatever sea lanes it needs. Israel is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security, and that security must be a reality,”

He is also attributed with having said,

“When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism,” in response to a student who had attacked Zionism during a dinner event with Dr. King in 1968.

In response to this outrageous act, conservative black ministers are holding a press conference to show their support for the Israeli Prime Minister.Urban Cure reported:

Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu will address a joint session of congress on March 3rd, and in a political move, leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus are planning to skip the speech in protest of Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to Netanyahu to do so. While the Congressional Black Caucus claims it has “consistently been the voice for people of color,” it seems this brazenly political move couldn’t be further from the voice of black Christians in America.

The Center for Urban Renewal and Education and leaders of the black Christian community will come together to voice their support for Israel and welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu as he addresses Congress. A press conference will be held at the National Press Club on Thursday, February 26, 2015 to address these concerns.

“Israel has had to fight for survival in the Middle East every single day since its founding,” said Star Parker, Founder & President of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. “The same forces that continue to threaten Israel today threaten America and the very Judeo-Christian values which link our nations. These biblical values defined the Civil Rights movement and Dr. King was an outspoken supporter of Israel. Jews were major supporters and partners in the Civil Rights movement since the founding of the NAACP. The Congressional Black Caucus undermines America, Israel, and our common Judeo-Christian heritage by turning their backs on the Israeli Prime Minister in a time of danger. We must hear the Prime Minister and show him black Christians, and all Americans, welcome him.”

Thursday, February 26, 2015

MSNBC is set to pull the plug on contentious Reverend Al Sharpton in a last ditch attempt to revive dwindling audience numbers.

The liberal anchor's nightly Politics Nation show is to be shelved by broadcasting bosses as they make drastic changes in the hope of clawing back viewers.

Company President Phil Griffin is believed to be placing his faith in a swing from the left in their Congress coverage - insisting that the station's Republican bashing glory days are now firmly in the past.

An MSNBC source told the Daily Beast: 'Going left was a brilliant strategy while it lasted and made hundreds of millions of dollars for Comcast.

'But it doesn't work anymore.

'The goal is to move away from left-wing TV.'

Sharpton's removal - which may see his politics show re- homed to a weekend slot - will be music to the ears of conservatives and right-wingers, often agitated by the 60-year-old's opposition stance.

It follows the exit of liberal firebrand Keith Olbermann, who left to join ESPN in 2011.

Long-term NBC anchor Brian Williams is also on six-month's unpaid leave after fabricating a story of coming under fire in a US military helicopter in Iraq.

It's thought that both of these factors were key in the broadcaster's decision to alter its stance to straight news from left-leaning.

The source added: 'Everybody in the food chain from top to bottom understands that the Olbermann era is over.'

In a long Facebook post, which she asked supporters to share, Van Susteren asked incredulously, "Has President Obama's National SecurityAdviser Susan Rice gone off the deep end? What kool aid is SHE drinking?"

"Rice...just claimed to Charlie Rose on CBS that Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to Congress next week is 'destructive' to the relationship between the US and Israel. Really? PM Netanyahu is the destructive one to the relationship?" Van Susteren continued.

The Fox commentator, who also hosts her own show called On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, then listed four instances where Rice's boss, President Barack Obama, was "destructive" to the relationship.

The first example of bad conduct, Van Susteren writes, was when Obama was caught in 2011 "trash-talking PM Netanyahu with then French President Nicolas Sarkozy."

Sarkozy told Obama that he couldn't stand Netanyahu, to which Obama replied, "You are sick of him, but I have to deal with him every day," creating an embarrassing scandal.

The second instance, Van Susteren outlines, was Obama's notable absence from a mega solidarity rally in Paris last month following terrorist attacks on a satirical magazine and a kosher grocery, in which 17 people were killed.

"In October an Administration official called PM Netanyahu in a magazine article 'chicken ****' and 'a coward,'" Van Susteren continues, also blasting Obama for not immediately sending an apology to Netanyahu on behalf of his administration.

She then brought her diatribe to present matters listing all the ways the US government plans to insult Netanyahu during his trip to Washington next week.

These include Democratic legislators boycotting the speech, Vice President Joe Biden being a no-show, and Obama's refusal to meet with Netanyahu.

"Does she think THAT was not destructive to the relationship?" Van Susteren writes alongside each of her examples.

"The is all because the White House is upset because Speaker Boehner did not tell them first before inviting PM Netanyahu.

Do you know how insane that is to be upset about 'manners' and 'protocol' when the topic is NUCLEAR WEAPONS?" Van Susteren concludes.

Netanyahu is slated to address Congress next week on Tuesday, March 3.

And why isn't Satmar upset that Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map, chas v'sholom?

Is it because they don't give a damn about 6 million Jews living in Israel? Is it all about section8 and programs?

Interestingly, Wieder, the Satmar savage, advises Rep. Maloney to see a radical Neturei Karta-affiliated website for information about what Torah ideals are.

This website is affiliated with the same people who attended the Holocaust denial conference in Iran. [SEE NOTE BELOW]

The following is the letter written by Mayor Wieder to Rep. Maloney:

Dear Rep. Maloney:

The core theme in Judaism is strict adherence to true Torah ideals and Jewish people, the world over and through the ages have identified and continue to identify with this philosophy. and your constituents in the village of Kiryas Joel, home to almost 25,000 orthodox Jews, all the more so.

Torah ideals guide us to be loyal citizens in our country of residence, to respect our elected leaders and to pray for their well being and prosperity ( for further insight visit TrueTorahJews.com) We were therefore utterly dismayed by Israeli PM Netanyahu’s agreeing to address a joint session of congress without first obtaining the presidents consent and without even the courtesy of consulting the White House.

Netanyahu’s acceptance signaled his intent to challenge the presidents foreign policy on american soil. His unprecedented actions are direct insult to the office of the president.

The intent of this letter is three fold; first to defend the honor and prestige of the office of the the president; second to decry Netanyahu’s breach of diplomatic prototypical and last but not least to repudiate his claim to be the spokesman of the Jewish people. Neither he nor his state represent world Jewry.

Therefore, on behalf of our joint constituents, I respectfully request that you not attend Netanyahu’s address. Your absence would send a clear message that your constituents’ want no part of Netanyahu’s callousness towards the office of the president.

As reported by TheYeshivaWorld Blog:Fifteen New York City Council Members traveled to Israel last week. They were scheduled to meet with the Mayor of Sderot, the Foreign Minister of Israel and even Israel’s President – Rubi Rivlin. Also on the itinerary – a visit to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Council Members. It was supposed to be one of the highlights of their trip, but for one member of the New York City Council it became a very public test of his faith. After interviews with several of the trip participants, here’s what we know happened

Councilman David Greenfield was the last to leave the bus heading into the US Consulate’s non-descript office building in the heart of Ramallah – just down the block from the global headquarters of the Palestinian Authority. Security was tight that day, not just because of the visiting US officials but because the US Consul General himself had decided to come to Ramallah to greet the group of American dignitaries. Greenfield was delayed because it was a cold day and he decided to grab his coat for the short trip from the bus to the US Consulate office. As a result, he was very visibly seen by the local Palestinians as a yarmulke-wearing Jew walking into the American facility. The local Palestinians complained about the Jewish-American walking into the building and that led to demands by US Security that Greenfield remove his yarmulke before leaving the US government building.

Before going on the trip, Greenfield understood that security might be an issue and specifically asked the organizers and American security personell if it was safe for the group but also specifically for him – a high profile Orthodox Jewish elected official – to travel to Ramallah. The organizers, the NYPD and the US Consulate all insisted that it would be safe for Greenfield and that the US government would provide security for the short trip from Jerusalem to Ramallah and back.

The first two meetings went off without a hitch according to Greenfield. But after he had a friendly conversation with the US Consul General, things turned south. “I was pulled aside by US Consulate Security personel who insisted that I not wear my yarmulke out of the Consulate’s building. I asked whether my wearing a yarmulke would endanger my group and was told that it would not but that I was putting myself at risk,” Greenfield explained. “I told them that I would not have visited Ramallah if I knew I couldn’t wear my yarmulke and that it was offensive for them to even ask.”

“Greenfield must have been going at it with the security for a good 15 minutes,” said one observer who asked for anonymity to speak freely. “It was a heated conversation. But Greenfield would not budge. He basically explained that with all that was happening to Jews in the world, including most recently France, he would not take off his yarmulke. He made it clear to security that he was willing to risk his own personal safety for what he believed in.”Greenfield even offered to walk out of the building first to ensure no risk to other participants. However, the security actually preferred Greenfield to walk out in a crowd, which is what he finally did with his yarmulke firmly planted on his head.

“It really is mind-boggling that an American elected officials is not safe walking out of the American consulate’s office in Ramallah simply because he wears a yarmulke. After all, this is the capital of the supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority. Do they really hate Jews so much?”

Then again, the fact Palestinians in Ramallah hate Jews that much may not be so surprising. On October 12, 2000, two Israeli reservists made the wrong turn into Ramallah – a mere 6 miles from Jerusalem. They were detained by Palestinian police. When word go out, over 1,000 rioters converged on the building they were detained in and killed the Jews with their bare hands even disemboweling them and throwing their bodies out of the building. As a result, Israelis are no longer permitted to enter Ramallah. It appears that all Jews are not welcome in Ramallah – even American officials who come in peace to meet with their Palestinian counterparts. -

Reports that President Obama agrees Iran should be free to make a nuclear bomb in about 10 years put the lie to his repeated vow never to allow an Iranian nuke. The broken promise is the international twin to his domestic whopper that you “can keep your doctor.”

You can’t, but Iran can keep its enriched uranium, making this lie an even bigger bombshell. As in, bombs away.

It is impossible to overstate the potential catastrophe of the emerging deal. If the terms reported by the Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal and others become final, it would mean the United States and leading UN powers give their blessing for the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism to have the ultimate weapon, effectively rewarding Iran for decades of criminal behavior and acts of war against America, Israel and others.

The deal also would launch a new round of nuclear proliferation among Arab states, with Saudi Arabia long promising to get a bomb if Iran does. Others fearful of Iran’s dominance are sure to follow, escalating the tit-for-tat patterns in the region into a nuclear nightmare.

In addition, an unbound Iranian nuclear industry and spreading enrichment technology make it likely that one or more of the Islamic terror groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, Boko Haram and Islamic State, is likely to get the bomb. And there is no doubt they would use it.

In short, the unfolding nuclear landscape presents the whole of mankind with unprecedented peril.

The terms of the developing agreement, as explained to reporters by negotiators, vindicates concerns that Obama would surrender to Iranian demands while claiming otherwise. He caved in with a deal that envisions a decade-long phase-out of restrictions, allowing Obama to say that there will be no bomb on his watch.

In reality, that is meaningless. The American stamp of approval for a nuclear Iran instantly reshapes geopolitical strategies.

Israel faces a new era of extreme risk, simultaneously in the cross hairs of a genocidal enemy and betrayed by its longest and closest ally. The betrayal continued even yesterday, with Secretary of State John Kerry blasting critics, presumably including Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Anyone running around right now, jumping to say we don’t like the deal, or this or that, doesn’t know what the deal is,” Kerry said in Senate testimony. “There is no deal yet.”

That’s only technically accurate because Obama and Kerry are keeping the details secret. The scam recalls how the White House hid the details of ObamaCare until the bill was passed; it’s what the FCC is doing with Internet regulations.

The timing is especially suspect, with the nuclear deal moving toward finality on the eve of Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress next week. Iran recently said the US was “desperate” for an agreement, and the reasons are obvious. Getting Iran’s signature on a document, any document, before the visit would allow Obama to take the steam out of Netanyahu’s warning by spinning the settlement as the best possible and making it seem unstoppable.

It will be — unless Congress finds a spine. The White House says Obama does not plan to send the agreement to the Senate for ratification, arguing it falls outside the definition of a treaty.

That shouldn’t fly, given the stakes to us, Israel and our Arab allies. But that all depends on whether Democrats continue to put loyalty to Obama ahead of their duty to America’s national security.

Even a handful of Dems joining with majority Republicans would be enough to reject any terms that allow Iran to get a nuke. In doing so, those senators would be enforcing the refrain that no deal is better than a bad deal.

And make no mistake — Obama has produced a very bad deal. Bad for America, and bad for the world.